Racing Ambassador
With his driving days more behind than ahead of him, the not-quite-retired Kaeding remains an influential and pivotal figure in sprint car racing as a businessman, mentor and behind-the-scenes statesman.
Outside the cockpit of a race car, he is likely most known as the founder of the business with his name on the door, Kaeding Performance. What began as a wheel business in a small garage is now a retail parts business that ships to customers throughout the country and in Australia.
It’s a business that Kaeding and his staff literally rescued from ashes when a fire from the adjacent freeway roared up behind the original building and leveled it. That left Kaeding and his friends to scrub the ashes from any inventory they could salvage before constructing the current building.
Kaeding, who retooled his business plan to expand internationally after the fire, can usually be found at the shop, often up to 10 hours a day, even though he insists he isn’t working as hard as he used to.
“I am involved in the business, but fortunately all my employees are very capable,” said Kaeding. He modestly contends the business would run well even if he weren’t there.
“Brian Matherly has been a partner and an employee for 25 years and he runs the business day to day.”
Kaeding can still be found at the race track, although his visits are fewer than they used to be and are often focused on the King of the West schedule.
Freed from the responsibility of getting a pair of cars and up to a dozen crew members to the track, he says his trips to the track are more enjoyable. But that doesn’t mask his competitive nature, when he can rise up like the proverbial race horse hearing the call to the post.
During the Louie Vermeil Classic at Calistoga Speedway in September, Brent Kaeding worked as feverishly as a crew chief to help Bud Kaeding work out changes to the setup of a car that wasn’t nearly as fast as they thought it should be.
“It’s more enjoyable if I can remove myself from the racing, but that’s hard,” he admitted. “I’m still very competitive and it’s hard not to be.”
It’s common to see Kaeding offering advice to other racers, whether or not they buy parts from him.
“I will help anyone who asks me for advice and I might even offer it if they don’t ask me,” said Kaeding. “I will give advice to anyone I think I can help. It’s great to see young kids coming into the sport and I hope they have the same opportunities as we did.”
Kaeding also supports sprint car racing in not so obvious ways. For many years he has had a seat on the board of directors of the NARC Benevolent Fund, which funnels money to racers who are injured or going through financial hardships. He has also supported the Trophy Cup, which has raised more than $1 million for the Make-A-Wish charity since it began 26 years ago.
And he is a guiding voice in the direction of the King of the West/NARC series for 410 sprint cars, making its survival a personal priority as costs go up and car counts remain stagnant.
“My passion for sprint car racing is why we do so much to support it,” he readily admits, while subtly deflecting attention to himself and referring to others who support his efforts.
But no longer strapped to a racing schedule that once consumed up to 90 nights a year, Kaeding has the opportunity to indulge himself with a balanced life.
There is his cabin at Lake Tahoe that gives him the opportunity to take a boat out on the water and leave the racing and business worlds behind. And there are grandkids and nephews twith which to spend time.
“It’s crazy how life passes you by,” Kaeding lamented, referring to the missed birthday parties and other special events that are too often left on the side of the road by the demands of racing.
“After a while, people stop inviting you to things because they know you will be off racing,” he said. “It’s something most people don’t understand unless they are a racer. Now I’m looking to do the things that I let pass me by and enjoy other parts of life.”
But for Kaeding, it’s not a regretful lament. It’s just shifting gears. “I wouldn’t change anything,” he said.
But like any racer, he is hesitant to see himself as a former racer rocking on the porch.
“I had a good time,” he said of his night at Watsonville. “And there’s no telling if it will happen again. I’m not looking for a ride, but I’m not retired.”